There is a reason kids aren't allowed to legally decide for themselves until 18.

In Python land, there is this saying "we are all adults here".

Being an adult also means avoiding creating needless drama.

They are, but they're adults who work in completely different environments and thus have wildly divergent needs.

One contrast:

You have some people who in business and want to do keep an old code base working forever.

You have some people who have no business experience and have no idea what a bottom line is, but might need a feature for a critical open source project that many others will use.

Have you ever tried to debate on python-idea ?

In nearly all cases where parenting is present, children are inferior to their parents in both intelligence and judgement.

This analogy does not work in software.

Repeating sametmax above: "That's the very point of a bdfl : it assumes he knows better than others."